Learning about Soil Health the Hard Way

The EAC’s Food Connections summer intern, Alison Froese-Stoddard, tells her story of learning about soil while trying to grow the perfect tomato.

I’m a rather lazy gardener, always looking for short cuts and a cheaper way of doing things.  As with many things, I have to learn the hard way not to cut corners when it comes to the soil mix in my container garden.  This is my somewhat embarrassing story of learning about soil the hard way.

My poor soil actually made an appearance in this blog last summer.  It was our first growing season in Nova Scotia, and I was excited to fill up our large raised bed garden.  I did very little to the garden soil before planting, apart from mixing in a bit of commercial compost, because I figured that the earthworm rich soil should have lots of nutrients.

The tomatoes on the left grew in the EAC’s office garden from plants I had started. The tomatoes on the right are the same variety of plants in exhausted soil in my own garden.

Not nearly enough, apparently.  Combined with very poor spring weather, my tomato crop was incredibly pathetic, and apart from two plants in my front yard planted in better soil, my harvest was almost nil.  This year, I did end up purchasing a few cubic yards of compost enriched garden soil, and topped up my garden considerably, along with adding nitrogen heavy bloodmeal , extra compost (homemade this time!), kelp meal, and potassium rich greensand.   At the end of June, many of my plants are already larger than they were at the end of August last year!  Lesson learned!

However, I’m still learning about potting soil the hard way.  Last year I ended up buying a lot of commercial potting soil for my various containers of tomatoes, potatoes and other things.  At the end of the summer, I put it in a big Rubbermaid container to get it out of the way.  This spring, I pondered what should become of my old soil mix.   I checked online, and there seemed to be quite a bit of debate as to how one should proceed in this situation, with some pragmatic folks saying it’s fine to reuse as long as you add a bit of compost, and other people swore against reusing it and suggested throwing it in the compost to bulk it up.

I did end up re-using it, and figured that if I added a few handfuls of compost to each container when I was potting up my plants, it should do the trick.  After a month or so, it was obvious which containers had gotten fewer handfuls of compost – some of my plants had barely grown at all!  I decided to re-pot the most pathetic of my container plants with extra compost, bloodmeal and greensand.  This time, I mixed my old potting soil with lots of compost, and added my amendments at the suggested rate, and once it was all mixed well, I repotted the plants.

It took a few weeks for my plants to recover from the transplant shock, but in the end I’m really glad I did it.  The above picture shows two of my tomato plants – the one on the left was the plant that originally was thriving due to the extra compost in the mix.  The plant on the right was the repotted transplant with the extra compost, bloodmeal and greensand.  What a difference!   After I took this photo, I made sure I top dressed the spindly plant with more nutrients as well, and I’ll periodically add some seaweed fertilizer to my watering schedule throughout the summer.  I did realize a bit too late that I should have used a  larger pot when I moved it the second time, because the small pot will ultimately stunt its potential growth.  However with some luck, these plants  – along with the others in my garden -  will grow enough tomatoes to put away for winter!

A Cup of Coffee for Me, A Cup of Coffee for the Garden…

Building Up Your Soil

I went to my local cafe for a cup of coffee to savour while sitting and writing this post. I have been going there a lot lately, picking up organic matter for the many gardens I work with, working away slowly to build up nutrients in the soil. This is the time of year when you learn what your soil is made of. You can look at the colour of your leaves, see how big they’ve grown and how many flowers are budding on their stalks, and compare it to your neighbour’s yard for one of the best soil tests around.

Tomato Plants Growing in One Location...

The Same Tomato Plants in Another Location!

If your garden is the one with the little plants, or the yellow leaves, don’t despair, it’s just your soil asking for a bit of love. If your garden is the one with big lush growth, deep green leaves and lots of buds, don’t take it for granted, and give your garden bits of love here and there when you have the time.

So what does loving your soil look like?

Compost is great, and you really can’t add too much of it to your garden soil. Mix it in at the beginning of the year, and add layers of it around your plants every month or every other month if you can. If that feels like a lot of work another great way to work on your soil is to add organic matter directly to your soil. This will act as a mulch and as they slowly decompose, they will add new nutrients to your soil. Mulching is also helpful to keep down weeds, keep the soil moist and creates a worm haven. You can use lots of different organic materials depending on what is most available in your environment. I have been adding layers of used coffee grinds (considered a green material, and a good source of nitrogen) with layers of  coffee chaff (the outside husk of a coffee bean that comes off in the roasting process, and would be considered a brown material).

Coffee chaff as mulch with coffee grinds underneath. This is a new garden and our soil building has only just begun!

There are lots of materials in our urban and rural environments that add nutrients to our soil. Pick a few that are easy for you to come by and try to mix it up sometimes to ensure you are getting a broad spectrum of nutrients. All the materials listed below can be used in your compost bin, or you can use them as mulch and allow them to decompose slowly into your soil. Just know that this will be a slow process, building your soil up over many seasons, so don’t look for those lush green leaves after a few days!

Some great things to add to your soil include:

Seaweed

A readily available organic matter in Nova Scotia. Use it as a mulch, in your compost bin, or add it to your soil. It is a good idea to rinse the seaweed, or allow it to sit for a while before adding it directly to your garden bed, but lots of folks put it straight on the garden without rinsing it. It contains many important nutrients for your soil. Kelp meal, a type of seaweed can also be purchased at gardening stores, which is rich in bioactivators, which wake up all the microbes in the soil to help break down organic matter and make it available to plants.

More info: http://ventnorpermaculture.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/using-seaweed-in-the-garden/

Grass clippings

A good source of nitrogen for your soil. You can use them as a mulch, although they do decompose quickly and so you need to top up your mulch regularly, or use them in your compost bin. Ask your neighbors to save their clippings for you, making sure they aren’t sprayed with chemicals.

Fallen Leaves

Leaves make a good mulch and you can also add them to your soil or compost. They are carbon rich, so if you add them to your soil, be sure to add a nitrogen source along with them (like coffee grinds or fresh grass clippings). It is a good idea to shred the leaves to aid in their slow decomposition and help prevent them from matting, but isn’t necessary.

Organic Gardening’s How-To Guide to make Leaf Mould:

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/basic-leaf-mold

Coffee Grinds

Are rich in nitrogen, you can add them to your compost pile or to your garden bed. Some people say they are acidic, while others argue that most of the acidity gets washed out in the brewing process. If you are worried about this you can add coffee grinds with eggshells, which will help to neutralize the pH. Worms love coffee grinds, as do azaleas and tomatoes. You can ask your local coffee shop to save grinds for you, or you can use your grinds from home.

A History of Coffee in the Garden:

http://groundtoground.org/2011/05/29/the-history-of-used-coffee-grounds-for-gardening/

Eggshells

Add calcium to your garden, they also raise the pH, making them a good amendment for acidic soils, which are common in these parts. If you are adding them directly to your soil, grind them into a powder first, or you can keep them corse to try to deter slugs. Try asking your local bakery if they are able to save some eggshells for you.

Animal Manures

Fresh manure is a great addition to your compost pile, and well-rotted manure can be added directly to your garden bed. You can use 1/2 rotted manure in a sheet mulch in the fall (where you essentially build a compost pile on top of your garden or on top of sod), so that it will be ready to plant in the spring. Different animal manure contain different nutrients, with chicken, sheep and horse manure being higher in nitrogen. Check with a local stable, or look on kijiji for people looking to give away their manure.

Wood Ashes

A source of calcium and potassium. They also raise your pH level, helping to amend acidic soil. Use wood ash carefully, making sure not to alter your soil pH too much or too quickly.

There are also many store-bought amendments such as bloodmeal, bonemeal, fish emulsion, kelp meal, alfalfa, and organic fertilizers. These can be useful if you have a severe nutrient deficiency or are unable to access these other soil enrichers.

For More Information:

Build_Me_Up_Buttercup:Knowing_and_Loving_Your_Soil

http://www.desperategardener.com/2011/04/lasagna-gardening.html